Pesticide Industry

The Centre for Science and Environment, an established institution known for its rigorous and scientific policy research and advocacy on environmental issues is looking for a Senior Scientist for its state of the art laboratory for monitoring pollution and toxins.

DURING1969-84, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) mainly produced three pesticides namely sevin(carbaryl), temik (aldicarb) and sevidol, which is a formulation of carbaryl and gammahexachlorocyclohexane (γ-HCH).

Today, I want to tell you a true story of extraordinary courage. The past week, I was in Kasaragod, a district in Kerala, splendid in beauty and with abundant natural resources, but destroyed by the toxic chemical, endosulfan. The pesticide was aerially sprayed over cashew plantations, for some 20 years, in complete disregard of the fact that there is no demarcation between plantations and human habitation in this area. It is also a high rainfall region and so, the sprayed pesticide leached into the ground and flowed downstream.

The Supreme Court appointed joint committee, headed by ICMR director general VM Katoch and Agriculture Commissioner Gurbachan Singh met for the first time on June 23. This was after five weeks of its appointment. The heads of the committee revealed that they will meet again on July 6-7.

Friday the 13th wasn't bad after all. The Supreme Court on May 13, passed an ad-interim order to ban with immediate effect the manufacture, sale and use of endosulfan throughout the country, citing its harmful health effects. The court also directed the statutory authorities to seize the permits given to endosulfan manufacturers till further orders.

Soon after the Supreme Court ordered the interim ban on endosulfan on May 13, the agriculture ministry issued letters to the different departments, the following day, for the compliance of the nation wide ban.